Hiking Jones Peak via Bailey Canyon

How to Get There
From the 210, exit on Baldwin Avenue in Sierra Madre and head north. When the street ends at a housing development, turn left onto Carter Avenue. Continue on Carter until it ends, keeping straight at the intersection with Oak Crest Drive. The entrance to Bailey Canyon Park is on your left. Parking is free and the park is open from dawn until dusk (overnight parking not allowed). The trailhead is at the far western side of the lot.
Detailed driving directions »

Public Transit Directions
From the Sierra Madre Villa Gold Line Station, take bus route 487/489 toward El Monte Station. Exit at Sierra Madre / Lima and walk about 0.6 miles north on Lima Street, keeping to the left when it turns into Carter Avenue. Bailey Canyon Park is at the end of the street.

Trail Condition
Very good. The trail to Jones Peak is very well maintained until Jones Saddle - but from there it's just a short, easily navigable scramble to the summit. The trail into Bailey Canyon toward the falls is surprisingly rugged - and almost overgrown. But it's very passable and easy to get through.

Notables

Short, rugged side trail to a seasonal waterfall

Additional side route through a large and peaceful grove of Live Oaks

Hike to the ruins of an old cabin

Million-dollar views of the L.A. basin - on clear days, you can see out to Catalina

Sierra Madre was the first town in Southern California to establish its own wilderness preserve – and it’s still in great shape. Just past the picturesque downtown area of the small city is the entrance to Bailey Canyon Park – a beautiful city park nestled right up against the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. Near the parking area are several picnic areas and a memorial to local hikers – and when I arrived on a sunny, warm morning the small park was bustling with activity from local youth and church groups – but I was focused more on the amazing yellow foliage of this tree:

If you can escape the allure of barbecued foods, head to the west end of the parking area and keep your eye out for this sign:

Follow the footpath west through a few more picnic areas. Pass through a turnstile and turn right onto the paved road as it swings around the western side of the large debris dam just north of the park. Don’t worry – the pavement soon ends and you’ll be in the woods on the bank of the canyon.

These early stretches of trail are very pleasant – the path narrows and becomes surrounded by traditional SoCal scrub vegetation, a beautiful grove of Live Oaks lies just across a short bridge to the east of the trail, and a small collection of cacti line the trail on its western edge.

You’ll note a bridge crossing the creekbed toward a section of the canyon that’s a bit more forested. This will lead you to a short but very pleasant nature trail through a grove of native oaks. Feel free to add this on to your trip or make a quick visit on your way back out to the trailhead – if not, continue heading north into the canyon.

After half a mile, you’ll come to a 3-way junction on the trail. If you just want to head to Jones Peak, stay to the right and start the ascent – otherwise, take a short detour on the left and hike on the Canyon View Nature Trail toward the waterfall.

Bailey Canyon narrows remarkably quickly – and although you’re probably only a few minutes’ time away from the parking lot, soon you’ll feel like you’re deep in the San Gabriels. The trail follows the stream bed of Bailey Canyon itself, and cuts through some surprisingly dense greenery. When I was hiking this route, the path was dry – but I imagine during the wet season you’ll be walking through a bit of water here.

For now, just enjoy the shade and the drastically cooler temperatures in the canyon. And, if you’re coming in the late fall, you might even get a little glimpse of some SoCal foliage!

This trail is only 0.25 miles, but because it’s so rugged it will probably take you a bit more time to cover that distance than you’re used to. At the 0.7 mile mark, you’ll reach the base of the 35 foot tall First Falls. When I hiked this, there was a small trickle of water coming down off the falls and more weeping from springs in the nearby canyon walls. There should be more water coming off of this fall in the wet season, but Bailey Canyon is pretty short so the water flow won’t last very long (also, it should be noted, you should not hike this canyon during or shortly after it rains – the area is notorious for flash floods).

While hanging out at the base of the falls, I met a few other hikers who told me about a canyoneering route that heads all the way up the canyon to more water and up the ruins of the cabin. There’s still an unmaintained use-trail just before the falls that you can scramble up to the top of First Falls, but after that it gets more technical and gear is required.

When you’re done at the falls, backtrack to the trail junction and keep left this time, heading toward Jones Peak.

Unlike the trail to the falls, this trail is very well maintained, clear – and HOT in the warmer months. From here, it’s a little over a mile and a half and 1116 feet of elevation gain until a brief break – and it’s almost completely shadeless along the way. If you’re doing this hike in the summer or on a warm day, this is why you should aim for an early trailhead time – it’s much easier to deal with that sun on the way down than on the way up.

That said, the trail does offer nearly nonstop, million-dollar views of the San Gabriels and the L.A. basin along the way. The views just seem to go on and on forever. Unfortunately on the day I hiked, it was a bit hazy out, so a lot of landmarks were obscured, but now I’m dying to hike this again after a good winter rain scrubs the skies …

On a winter re-hike of this trail, the views were significantly nicer:

It appears that whoever built this relatively new rest-stop bench along the way has a bit of a sense of humor. This plaque on the bench is what I believe historians would call “not true.”

The trail is a moderately tough climb on this early stage, but be sure to be on the lookout for the many fragrant chaparral plants that line the slope of the front range here. When I re-hiked the trail in mid-winter, it was absolutely covered with black sage and California sagebrush, which can definitely make a nice change of smell from the sweat that’s likely pooling on your body on the way up!

This is black sage. Touch it, smell it, love it.

At the 2.5 mile mark, you’ll reach that bit of respite – and it’s a pretty awesome site. Here, the trail finally stops switchbacking for a minute and turns northward into the San Gabriels, deep in a shaded, cool grove. More interestingly, though, there are also the ruins of a very cozy looking cabin, perched on a ledge between the shady grove and a drop-off to the canyons below. A location like this would probably go for a pretty penny on the real estate market these days.

I had a bit of trouble trying to track down the history of this cabin site. The canyon was a big fur-trapping area in the 1880s and this cabin may have been a small hunters’ retreat – the cabin’s footprint looks pretty small for a full fledged homestead. Today, only the stone foundation remains, and it serves as a nice seat to take a rest with shade and good views. A lot of hikers and trail-runners turn around here, but you’re headed for Jones Peak, so get back on the trail and keep heading upward.

It also appears that whoever left the plaque on the bench lower on the slope struck here. While the San Gabriels do have quite a few examples of mountain men who packed up and ditched their east coast families, I’m fairly certain this plaque combining some aspects of the Typhoid Mary story and “It’s a Wonderful Life” is not true. It reads “George’s Cabin: in 1945 a Typhoid epidemic in Bedford Falls killed Mary and their four children. Despondent, George sells the Building and Loan, travels west and lives as a hermit in this hillside cabin. Despite his isolation, George’s outgoing personality impresses everyone who passes on the trail and he is well loved and admired until his death.”

I hope you got a decent little rest at the cabin site – because the switchbacks and incline are about to get even more intense than they were – although at least this time there’s a tiny bit more shade along the way. In less than a mile the trail gains nearly 900 feet, twisting and turning through manzanita and chaparral. Here, you’ll lose some of the grand views of the basin, but you’ll see the old Mount Wilson Toll Road, Mount Harvard, and Mount Wilson to your north.

At the 3.4 mile mark, you’ll pass underneath a small tree at a saddle just north of Jones Peak overlooking Little Santa Anita Canyon to the east. The trail continues north toward Orchard Camp and Mount Wilson, but instead look to the right for a well-worn use trail that scrambles up the north face of Jones Peak.

It’s a short little trip up – and when you reach the small tree-less summit, you’ll have fantastic views of the mountains and cities around you … again, providing it’s a clear day. But even if it’s not, you’ll still get a pretty cool view of the higher mountains peeking up through the SoCal haze. You might even be able to see some of the peaks of Catalina!

I found a register in a small tin buried beneath some rocks at the summit. Sign it if you find it, then return back the way you came.

For an optional loop that’s been recommended to me, head north toward Mount Wilson. When the ridge makes a sharp left hand turn, look for a use-trail descending east into Little Santa Anita Canyon. This trail will intersect with the Mount Wilson Trail in that canyon, which you can hike all the way back to Mira Monte Avenue in Sierra Madre in about three miles. From there, you can hike along the city streets back to Bailey Canyon Park in about a mile.

Since founding Modern Hiker in 2006, Casey's writing has appeared in Backpacker, the REI Blog, Adventure Journal, and Sierra Trading Post's Social Hub. He was in Columbia Sportswear's inaugural #OmniTen program and was featured prominently in their documentary "I Am #OmniTen."

His stories for Modern Hiker have brought regional and national attention, and have been featured on Good Morning America, NPR, and the Associated Press.

Casey is also an award-winning television writer-producer, and was Series Producer of pivot's TakePart Live and Head Writer of G4's Attack of the Show.

14 Comments

This was a really great hike and a real challenge! As noted in the writeup, the hike got particularly challenging after the cabin all the way to the peak. The views are incredible, however, and really are worth the effort.

Parking was particularly easy for the trail :-)

Despite the excellent writeup, I got a little confused on this trail. Other hikers helped me out and so I’ll pass along some quick notes:
*Shortly after the Flash Flood Area sign shown in the writeup and before the trailhead to Jones Peak, there is a 3-way junction with a bridge to the right. That is not the 3-way junction mentioned in the writeup; take the left at this junction and you’ll soon end up at 3-way junction mentioned in the writeup. There is a sign at this junction:
-To the left is the Canyon View Nature Trail Waterfall which the waterfall called “Bailey Canyon” in the writeup.
-To the right is Bailey Canyon trail which is the trial to Jones Peak. You can easily see that this is the trail to Jones Peak because it starts going upward right away.

*As the writeup notes, it’s kinda easy to miss Jones Peak and continue along the trail to Orchard Camp and Mount Wilson. To avoid this, keep an eye out for the steep ascent to Jones Peak that is mentioned in the writeup; it really is a scramble to the top :-)

*I’m thinking that George’s cabin on the Bailey trail might just be a wonderful joke. You should take your friends there: No man is a failure who has friends.

Glad you liked this trail! It’s one of my favorites in the front range and I think more people need to give it a shot.

I actually re-hiked the trail recently and snapped some more photos to help clarify that first junction and will update the write-up. Thanks for the reminder!

Also, I’m pretty sure someone with an unusual sense of humor has been putting plaques up along the trail. The one at “George’s Cabin” wasn’t there the first time I hiked and the one that’s there now is definitely not historically correct – nor is the one at a rest bench about halfway up the ridge. Not entirely sure how I feel about these. I could tell they were jokes but they’re subtle enough that people could easily be fooled!

For some reason I must have missed the part about how HOT and shadeless this trail is… we started around 1pm on a 90 degree day (wtf was I thinking?), and after making it about 80% of the way up, 2 normally athletic people felt like they were about to die and had to call it quits and retreat back down. Lesson learned: go VERY EARLY or on a chilly, cloudy day. ;)

Michelle, the app only has a selection of hikes now – not the full site yet. We’re still working on getting more content on there and hope to have more soon, but you can access all the information on Jones Peak from your desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone right now.

As I posted at Nobody Hikes in LA: I did this hike in July 2011. Had my closest-ever encounter with a rattlesnake on one of those tight, steep switchbacks – somehow I stepped right over him without seeing him. Then he let me know that he was there.

I’m definitely gonna tackle that one on the next clear winter day – I was really impressed by this trail. Wasn’t expecting a whole lot on the way, but as soon as I drove through the super-cute downtown Sierra Madre I started falling in love with it :)